Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report

[Spazito]

A year ago, weeks after the Carney Liberals won the last federal election, the website albertaseparatist.com sprang up, accompanied by similarly named TikTok and YouTube accounts.

Article headlines included “The case for sovereignty over statehood” and “Ottawa’s piggy bank wakes up” — but these sites don’t appear to have come from anywhere in Alberta.

snip

Both Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading misinformation about Alberta separatism in the hope of fraying Canadian unity and sowing distrust in key institutions and authorities, warns a new report released Wednesday.

Governments and the public should also brace for more disinformation and foreign interference attempts in coming months if a separation referendum goes ahead, says the report by a collection of groups, including DisinfoWatch, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network and CASiLabs.

snip

“Now, U.S. officials and influencers have joined the threat landscape, not through covert strategies, but through overt political bullying, deliberate provocation, and a powerful social media influencer ecosystem that has trained its attention on one of the most consequential fault lines facing Canada’s future: the Alberta separation movement,” says the report, titled National Unity Under Threat.

snip

In addition to Russian and U.S. efforts, there’s the recently uncovered artificial intelligence “slopaganda” videos, which a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation traced back to Dutch content creators.

much more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/russia-and-u-s-amplifying-alberta-separatist-narratives-to-stoke-division-distrust-report-9.7189604

It's good to see at least one mainstream news outlet, the CBC, focusing on the disinformation being spread by foreign actors re Alberta's fringe groups' call for separation, I hope more outlets follow suit and report these facts as opposed to the hyping of the issue that has gone on far too long, imo.

[displacedvermoter]

1. How much time, energy and money do you

think we are now spending on these kind of efforts aimed, along with intelligence gathering of various sorts, not at adversaries -- Russia, China, North Korea, various and sundry crackpot dictatorships
-- but at longstanding friends and allies like Canada, like Denmark, like the NATO states?

[Spazito]

2. My guess, a lot...

the right wing is supported by millions of dollars from various sources including some well-known millionaires and at least one billionaire, Musk, imo, and some of those funds are used for spreading disinformation and propaganda well beyond the borders of the US.

[applegrove]

3. Last year those Albertans who wanted to leave Canada were at 28%

Now it is 27%. It is going down.

[Spazito]

4. Yes, they haven't made any gains at all...

they may even fall further with the breach of voter info by their buddies.

Jason Kenny, a former Premier, has been speaking out on this. It turns out his name was used as an example of how to use the data by the group during a meeting to show all the information anyone who used it would get from it. He has retained a lawyer regarding this, I believe.

From a CBC article:

"The NDP claims the video shows Centurion Project organizer David Parker searching for former Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s name in a tool labelled “search electors” as he demonstrates how to use the app. The information under Kenney’s name is blacked out in the picture shared by the NDP."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/elections-alberta-voter-data-centurion-project-ndp-ucp-9.7189167